Today, Linux runs on about anything.
If you have an recent Nvidia or AMD graphics card you may have to install a proprietary driver.
The Intel graphics driver works very well out of the box, watch out for dual graphics setups, they are difficult to set up in Linux (as well as in Windows).
You could look for a windows xp laptop, they have no free upgrade to windows 10, and are usually cheap to find.
Linux Mint (Ubuntu based) is the easiest, and best supported linux system.
You should also look in the ubuntu forums, a lot more help can be found there.
Have fun.